Korea opportunities

By Tatiana Boncompagni
Monday, January 28, 2008


Is the future face of American fashion ... Korean? Consider the following: four out of eight designers chosen by Gen Art, a New York-based fashion incubator, to show their designs in the recent Gen Art Fresh Faces catwalk show were Korean or Korean American. At Parsons The New School for Design, nearly half of the students enrolled in their bachelor of fine arts fashion design programme last year were either Asian or Asian American (with fully 29 per cent of the student population from Korea). And the number of Korean and Korean American students earning a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology rose from 57 to 152 students between autumn 2003 and autumn 2006.

“The number of Korean students has been escalating since the early 1980s,” says Tim Gunn, the former president of Parsons, who is chief creative officer for Liz Claiborne Inc and star of the Bravo network television programme Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.

It was in the 1980s that the Korean middle class emerged, thanks to a strong economy, creating a demand for both higher education and high-end fashion. “With the rise of the middle class, there were more people travelling and more exposure to western culture,” explains Susan Shin, a New York fashion consultant of Korean descent. “It nurtured a greater interest in fashion and the creative spirit.”


Elle Korea and Vogue Korea launched in 1992 and 1996 respectively, marking a turning point in the development of Korea's demand for designer clothes, say Gene Kang and Hanii Yoon, the Korean duo behind Y & Kei, a line of clothing inspired by Buddhist principles. The magazines also fostered an interest in studying fashion, especially among the children of the new middle class who, “wanting to do the best for their children”, were willing to send them overseas to study, say Kang and Yoon.

Faced with mounting applications from Korean students, New York's Parsons became involved in the establishment of the Samsung Art and Design Institute, a university endowed by the electronics giant. In 2003 Samsung launched Derercuny, a highly sophisticated line of women's wear helmed by Korean designer Mina Lee and shown in Milan.

“What we said to the students was, ‘If you want to go to Parsons, you have to go through here first,'” says Gunn, adding that while the artistic ability of the applicants was high, their English wasn't proficient. “This programme helps prepare them enter at a more advanced level.”

So far the biggest success stories are those of two Korean American designers. Richard Chai, an alumnus of Marc Jacobs and TSE cashmere, has his own line of architectural, 1980s-inspired clothing, while Doo-Ri Chung's sophisticated use of draping and texture won her the top prize at the 2006 Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards, as well as the 2006 Swarovski Perry Ellis Award for emerging women's wear designer.

“They both have their own sense of style – that's what makes them so unique,” says Roopal Patel, women's fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman, the Fifth Avenue department store. “The one common thread is their meticulousness; they understand what it takes to become an expert in their craft. To them, it's not just designing a garment. They really think about everything from the aesthetic to the fabric to the type of stitch.”

Chung, a Parsons graduate who moved with her family from Korea to New Jersey when she was four years old, credits the upswell of Korean Americans studying fashion to an increasing acceptance of pursuing it as a career in the Korean community. Chung worked for Banana Republic and Geoffrey Beene before striking out on her own. “Only now is it the case that you don't have to be a doctor or a lawyer or an investment banker. There used to be this stigma; oh you want to go into fashion, are you going to be poor for the rest of your life?”

Korean American designer Grace Sun worked for a decade designing movie posters and helping to build an internet company before she gathered the nerve to pursue her true passion. After stints at retailers Rachel Roy and 3.1 Phillip Lim, Sun launched her line of highly wearable dresses and separates almost two years ago. “There are a lot of us drawn to the business,” says Sun, whose spring collection is based on the idea of tropics in the city and features a selection of silk dresses in colours like bougainvillea and misty blue. “I was born in Korea but I conduct business in China a lot and I've realised that Chinese culture is very much focused on food and culinary experiences. Koreans focus more on appearances and therefore fashion is a bigger part of the culture.”

Likewise, Sonia Yoon – one of the designers at Bensoni, a young line of hipster-cool smocked dresses and elegantly tiered tops sold in 130 stores across the US – sees her heritage as a big factor in her work. “Koreans have this inherent history in great craftsmanship and technical skills,” says Yoon, who was born in Korea and raised in London and New Jersey.

Of course, not every Korean or Korean American student enrolled in a prestigious design school is destined for New York's Bryant Park. Gunn recalls receiving a phone call from the parent of a Korean student at Parsons who had received a huge credit card bill from his daughter. “He said, ‘I wish I'd known in advance what the shopping budget was',” says Gunn. “There were all these charges from Louis Vuitton and Chanel.” The school had given the student's class an assignment to review a handful of stores but, instead of just writing a review, the student had gone on a shopping spree.

Gunn adds that for some Korean students Parsons is “like a finishing school. In a way, they are learning how to shop.” Still, there will be those with the ambition and talent to go the distance. After all, the fashion industry has always embraced foreign or ethnic talent. Two pillars of US fashion, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta, are from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic respectively. “This is what makes American fashion so brilliant,” says Bergdorf's Patel. “It's very representative of our country, actually.”